The First Drumkit
by Kashito91
Summary: God help us all, Vinnie buys a drumkit!


_**DISCLAIMER: Everyone should know the obvious: I DON'T OWN THE MICE. If I did, The new series wouldn't exist, and the original would be on DVD, with extras, interviews... the works. Also: MAJOR shout-out to Inuficcrzy who helped me gather the courage to post this!  
Final notice, I swear: I don't own I Want to Break Free. That belongs to Queen!**_

He was bored. There was no other way to describe it. Vinnie Van Wham was bored out of his skull. No battles, no friendly punch ups, NOTHING. After moping around for a horribly long amount of time, he decided to browse the paper. Gazing under the Music section, he saw ads for pianos, trumpets; mostly boring items, but then, he spied it: "Drum kit for sale, great shape, sounds awesome. Cymbals, toms, snare, free skins. Call 555-1348 for more info!" Vinnie's interest peaked.

"Drum kit, huh? Sounds interesting..." He tore out the ad, then hopped on his racer and zoomed off down the street. After a surprisingly small amount of money changed hands, and a few trips back and forth between the board and the former owner's house, the kit made it there no problems. A few hours later, after somehow managing to banish his bros from the board for an "unexplained" dryer explosion, the white furred hurricane started secretly training his ears to music. As he listened through Queen, Pink Floyd, David Bowie and quite a few other artists, he slowly got the basics of drumming down.

A week later, there had been a fair bit of improvement. Give Vinnie an easy song, like '_I Want to Break Free_", he could just about make it through first shot. After hearing the white mouse bust out randomly after practising all day, shivers went up Throttle's spine, who happened to be riding by the Board. 'Oh Gods, what's that idiot done now?' The tan mouse wondered. After he pulled into the garage, he persuaded Charley to do a little looking. So, Charley decided to hang around in the shadows of the board that night. She watched Vinnie come in, sit at a slightly scratched drum kit, then begin to pound away.

Now, Charley wouldn't say that her record collection was massive, but she knew her tunes. Hearing Vinnie try to, properly, harmonize with _Death On Two Legs_ was just scary. She took a deep breath and decided to reveal herself. She hopped off the higher catwalk, then down onto the ground floor. Vinnie stopped dead in his tracks, his ears sliding back in sheer fright. "Ch- Charley? Wh- what are you d- doing here?" The poor white mouse slid off his chair and crashed onto the floor, backing into a corner as though Charley had a laser pointed at him.

"Vinnie, I come in peace..." Charley was shocked. She'd never expected a response like this. "So this is what you've been doing for the last 3 weeks, Mr. Secretive. I'm impressed!" At this, Vinnie looked so confused, it was hurting. "What? I thought you were going to yell at me for making noise..." Charley slowly came over, then sat down with the poor, white furred mouse. "Hey, I think you being a drummer is a great thing! Hey, get your ears in tune, you might be able to hit the right notes... Just do me a favour..."

The look of relief that swept over Vinnie's face at the first sign of approval would have been mistaken for someone who'd seen something either incredibly awesome, or extremely dirty. "Name it, babe." The white mouse hugged Charley close, but soft. "Never try singing Bohemian Rhapsody... ok? It's just too well known by Freddie... Ok?" Vinnie nodded slowly, understanding Charley's viewpoint.

"Ok, babe, I won't... but I need you to keep this a secret, until I can get better... If you can, give me another fortnight, ok?" Charley hugged the white mouse close, rubbing his back. "I doubt it, Vinnie. To be honest, Throttle put me up to this, but..." A sly smirk crossed Charley's face. "I think I can buy you a little more time." With that, Charley left, without waiting for Vinnie's reply.

True to her word, Charley, somehow, managed to convince Throttle and Modo to stay at the garage for a record 4 more days, purely by James Bond films. After all that, Modo said they HAD to return home, as they couldn't stay at Charley's any more. As soon as the other two were out of sight, Charley picked up the radio. Vinnie, meanwhile, was busy rigging up three powerful spotlights to the Board's electric system. When the radio went off, the poor mouse received a very nasty shock, then radioed back that he'd be ready. When Throttle and Modo turned up, all they found was a black Scoreboard, with a little note on the fuse saying "switch me". The grey mouse sighed, then flicked the switch.

The three spotlights burst into life, revealing Vinnie, who was sitting at a polished, cherry red drum kit, with some very shiny cymbals. The white tail snaked out, and set the needle down on the rotating disc. The steadily building synth began, building to a shimmering crescendo. Throttle and Modo watched, in stunned silence, as Vinnie began to actually drum, IN TIME, to I Want To Break Free. They were in shock; they couldn't believe that their white furred bro had finally gotten his ears in tune!

Then, _oh hells, no..._ Throttle's eyes picked out the cordless microphone Vinnie had on his head. Drumming, he could take, but his white furred bro's singing? The tan mouse lunged for Vincent, but before he could go anywhere, the track stopped, and so did Vinnie. Then, the white muzzle opened and he began to sing...

_I want to break free  
I want to break free  
I want to break free from your lies  
You're so self satisfied I don't need you  
I've got to break free  
God knows; God knows I want to break free_

They were in shock; muzzles open, Throttle's nearly reaching the floor. Vinnie's voice was soft, clear, and sweet gods above, IN TUNE! He'd finally done it! Modo had the silliest grin on his face, and Throttle was watching in in disbelief.

_I've fallen in love,  
I've fallen in love for the first time  
And this time I know it's for real  
I've fallen in love yeah  
God knows; God knows I've fallen in love_

The tan mouse straightened up, watching his white furred bro concentrate hard on both lyrics and timing. Surprisingly, he hadn't missed a beat so far, and he'd hit every note dead on. Throttle and Modo both knew there was a second voice in the original tune, but they'd sussed out that Vinnie had focused on the original melody line. _'Oh great, here comes the chorus' _Throttle thought as he got ready to shield his ears from Vinnie's upper range.

_It's strange but it's true  
I can't get over the way you love me like you do  
But I have to be sure  
When I walk out that door  
Oh how I want to be free, baby  
Oh how I want to be free  
Oh how I want to break free_

The tawny mouse's eyes were wide in disbelief. Vinnie had nailed every note; his voice just beginning to waiver at the top of his range, but he held it, and it stayed there. Then the instrumental started, and the white mouse let loose, still somehow keeping his time; complete with stops and starts too! Modo started gently grooving away to the song, nodding his head as Throttle clicked his fingers. A wide grin spread over Vinnie's muzzle to see his bros enjoying what he'd done...

_But life still goes on  
I can't get used to living without living without  
Living without you by my side  
I don't want to live alone hey  
God knows got to make it on my own  
So baby can't you see  
I've got to break free_

Hidden deep in the shadows of the scoreboard, Charley had been secretly spying on the troublesome trio, a proud grin on her face as Vinnie kept pounding away. She knew that Throttle and Modo would probably pay poor Vinnie out later, but Charley thought that Vinnie finally managing to get his act together musically was worth all the harassment he'd get in the immediate future.

_I've got to break free  
I want to break free yeah_  
_I want I want I want I want to break free... _

The record ended, the needle winding its way to the endgroove as Vinnie's tail plucked the needle off the spinning vinyl. Throttle and Modo then started to applaud, genuinely impressed by their bro's effort. Vinnie felt like he'd just played to a 50,000 strong crowd; and they all wanted more. However, he knew it was just his bros standing in front of him. With a little reserve, he hooped off the stool and walked over to his best friends. "So, what did you think?"

Both mice nodded and gave some very strong encouragement to the young white mouse... Then the pay-outs started.


End file.
